Wouldn’t it be fun if we are ETs, and we were jettisoned into this solar system with just enough stuff to get us back where we came from. But the impact that became the moon wasn’t accounted for, and instead of no moons or the moons that we were designed to have, we got The Moon. As we’ve stated ourselves, it made a lot of us unwell and now the collective sense of doom we feel is not only because we’re slowly making the planet uninhabitable for ourselves, but in the process using up all of the resources we were supposed to use to escape.
OKAY STRAP IN because this is one of the WILDEST stories in aviation history.
In 1990, a British Airways BAC One-Eleven, captained by Tim Lancaster and co-piloted by Alastair Atchison, was cruising at 17,000 feet.
Around 15 minutes after take-off, flight attendant Nigel Ogden entered the cockpit to bring the pilots something to drink. One second everything was fine. The next second, the pilot’s side window blew out from the force of the pressurized cockpit. Even though he was strapped in, the force of the explosive decompression ripped the captain out of his chair and pulled him though the window.
The flight attendant immediately leapt forward and grasped the captain’s belt. The force was so strong - due to the plane’s speed - the captain slipped and was pulled almost entirely out of the plane, but the flight attendant caught his leg. The captain laid on the roof, then the side of the fuselage (the above image is an inaccurate recreation - the side window was smashed) and the flight attendant’s entire arm was soon outside of the plane, gripping him.
(Recreation from the show Mayday at the point of decompression)
At the same time, the event caused the autopilot to disengage, and the captain’s body hitting the flight controls caused the plane to enter into a deep dive. The throttle was set to full power and could not be accessed due to debris, meaning the plane was descending rapidly. The co-pilot, experiencing hypoxia, fought to control the plane’s dive while allowing it to continue descending to a level the passengers/crew could breathe at. He attempted to contact air traffic control, but the wind made communication impossible, so he broadcast a mayday signal. Finally, he was able to re-engage the autopilot and level the plane out at a breathable altitude.
Soon, the flight attendant’s entire arm was burned from wind shear and frostbite, and his grip began to slip. The other attendants entered the cabin to see what was wrong and took over holding the captain’s body. Seeing the blood covering the windows from the captain’s severe wind sheer burns and frostbite, the attendants and co-pilot knew he was dead. However, they could not let his body go because it could smash into the wing, horz stabilizer, or engine, and bring the plane down.
For 30+ minutes the co-pilot flew a jet plane with an OPEN WINDOW and his co-worker’s body hanging along the side of the plane. Finally, clearance to land from ATC came across over the sound of the wind and the flight attendants were able to dislodge the captain’s ankles from the flight controls without letting him go. The co-pilot successfully landed the plane.
(tw below for blood)
(Taken same day as the incident)
BUT HERE’S THE KICKER: when they reached the ground and evacuated, they realized THE CAPTAIN WAS NOT DEAD.
He SURVIVED being outside the fuselage of a jet airplane traveling 550mph at 17,000 feet. His only injuries were extensive - but mostly superficial - frostbite and windshear burns, bruising, fractures in his hand, and shock. He has since stated that he remembers the event and was conscious for much of the time he was outside of the fuselage. The only other injury was the flight attendant’s frostbitten/windshorn arm. Captain Tim Lancaster returned to flying five months later.
(Captain Tim Lancaster in bed several weeks after the incident, with flight attendant Ogden (+ Ogden’s wife) above him and co-pilot Alastair Atchison to the far left, along with the two other flight attendants)
Why did this occur? Because the plane had received maintenance the day before, and the maintenance supervisor did not check he was using the correct screws in re-installing the windscreen.
(Recreation)
So yeah: you can apparently survive clinging to the side of a jet airliner traveling 500+mph at 17,000 feet.
Wow! Didn’t expect this many likes for an aviation post.
Just a note that I was wrong - it was the front pilot’s windscreen, not the side-window! I’m used to looking at Boeing windows with different positions :)
If y'all want the full story & more analysis of what exactly went wrong, Mayday: Air Investigations did a pretty decent special on the incident. It’s free on YouTube here (and here on dailymotion if you’re outside the US).
The human fucking body will either survive the most insane extremes or die on your shoe laces
I’m so tired of people on the internet assuming every 19th century photo of someone looking awkward is post mortem. Post mortem photography is actually a lot rarer than you think it is and there was NO WAY for them to put bodies in lifelike poses such as standing or sitting up. Most post mortem photos are taken with the corpse already in the coffin and rarely do they have their eyes open, if they do the eyes are more than likely painted on. Also, a lot of the photos that are said to be post mortem are actually of live subjects.
For instance, I’m almost completely certain the baby in this photo is alive, it’s doing a big yawn and stretching it’s arm. The parents look serious because that was the usual portrait style. A dead baby and a live baby look very different. Death changes the face immediately, their features will look sunken and they’ll be in a reclined pose.
Here’s another example, sorry for the bad quality. Love this picture.
You can see a stand behind the little girl. That’s not to keep her corpse upright, she is very much alive in this photo, the grumpy expression on her face tells it all. Stands were used to keep people still for film exposure that lasted anywhere between 3 and 15 seconds. They were post often used on children who are notoriously difficult to keep still. The Newfoundland moved during the film exposure, that’s why it’s face is blurry.
Those idiots who keep saying “it’s both sides” are part of the problem. In fact, they’re most of the problem.
Marginalized people want to live their lives authentically and fully, bigots don’t want them to live at all. I can see both sides and think we should allow marginalized people to live but make things really difficult for them. I am very smart and empathetic.
